Mischief Under Moonshine

[Vesper]

Frost 25th, 4621

Whatever it was, Vesper hadn't the where-what-for as to why he was out here in the cold grasping dark of a night most haunting, deep in the Orkhan-infested woods of Amoren. He supposed it could have been to feel a bit more - he was blatantly, utterly depressed as it were - but even with emotional awareness rivaling a machine, he couldn't be sure.

And so he went and did what cats did. He hunted some birds.

That grew to be a bore, so he kicked some stones, peering up at the stars along the path. A weighty carriage rolled by him. "…'Lo!" called the carriage-man out of surprise; Vesper'd appeared from the dark out of nowhere and spooked the lad at the reins, but the cat cast no gaze.

Looking back, he considered doing something very very not-good and totally awful to that carriage, but he couldn't be fussed. As amusing as it would be to see the cant of a spinning wooden wheel rolling down the path, that vision did not appeal…

What… the fuck do you want, Vesper?

Lurking behind a tree, Vespasien Catineau's claws stuck into the bark like prickly little knives as he poked his head around to peer at a faint glow he's spied in a glade just beyond the path.

These woods are so dangerous, why would anyone camp here? There are hedge bandits and lethal predators… and then there's me.

Creeping closer, Vesper held out his hands, and then rolled the tension through his body. Corralling the Weave around the tent, he selectively gripped the entire thing and curled his paws before flicking them aside with a powerful stroke of will.

Purple shimmers appeared in the air, bending at reality with a sudden lurch of vibrant energies. Crumpling at the seams, the tent tore from the stakes and rippled away, tumbling the contents and strewing, Impelling anything within all over the clearing - object or person - in an absolute whirlwind of chaos.

From out of nowhere, Vesper came running up. "Oh my gosh, are you okay!?" he called from out of the darkness. "There was this big Spirit of the Straits I was tailing, and it was speeding through here all big and windy!" Two yellow eyes reflected brightly out of the darkness… they had a strange allure to them, but they seemed genuinely concerned even if the body they were attached to was unnervingly obscure, an outline in the tall grass.

The cat's tail twitched behind him, just out of sight. Entertainment for the evening was secure.

[Lux]

After his bout in the well and his needing to call Taelian to get out of it, Lux had decided to spend a few nights in the wilderness again. Perhaps it wasn't exactly safer or less dangerous, and he wasn't exactly saved if someone wandered near his fire and wanted to enslave him. But with his tent set up, he sat and poked at the burning sticks with another stick. It was like a game, one where he tried to see how long it took for the stick to catch on fire before he had to throw it onto the pyre and find another.

Lucky for him, sitting there with his horn-rings glowing in the warm light of the fire, he had left nothing in the tent that had now careened around the camp and into a tree. Lux hadn't felt much of a breeze, and his tail stiffened with the momentary shock — until someone dark came near the edge of the camp and started explaining themselves. The bright red Moroi turned his head and smiled at the big, yellow eyes. Stix was all a-flutter from the commotion and cawed at the newcomer.

"A Spirit of the Straits? What's that?" Lux reached into the backpack that had laid in the dirt next to him and began taking notes. "What's your name? Do you chase spirits often? I didn't even feel a breeze, but I can see that my tent did. That's okay. I think I can fix it." He stood to his feet and now all the bits of him glowed in the fire — his ringed horns, the rings around his arms, the constellation tattoo on his cheek, even his piercings reflected in the light until he turned away from it. There was a squint on his face as he tried to get a better look at the newcomer, and his tail swished.

"I can't see you very well. Can you come closer? I'm Lux."

[Vesper]

TIME STAMP

Leaning to one side, Vesper smiled behind the cover of darkness and dismissed the question from this strange, glowing-horned man by swatting slowly at the air. "Oh? Pff, it's nothing, just a big and mean monster is all. But don't worry, I took care of it."

The cat blinked, stepping closer even before the invitation, yet he still kept his distance just beyond the firelight, touching his chin. "Whooaaaa, I've never seen… are those horns? Are you a goat Rathor? Why are your horns glowing like that?" Vesper had only ever read about Moroi - and the notes had no pictures - so he took his time to study the fellow.

Paw still pressed to lips, Vesper finally stepped forward into the light. He was a small thing, not even five feet tall with a greyish poncho marked by beige lines. The cat wore no shoes, no hat, and even if it couldn't be seen with that comfy-looking drapery, he wore no pants as well. What was more striking was the glossy sheen of his fur, the serenity preserved in a groomed state by the nature of his Mask, so glossy that it looked beyond luxurious. His face seemed remarkably well shaped, drawing the eye with that black, button nose. The tail behind him was still, crooked at the end like an ominous question mark.

"You can call me cat, but my friends call me 'the cat' and sometimes 'hey cat' or 'that cat'. I chase anything that catches my eye, and that includes spirits and butterflies!" His mewling voice was soft and boyish, carrying an alluring softness to it. "Don't let my looks fool you, I'm a powerful mage!" he said, waving his paw and leaning back, eyes shutting with the air of excellence.

When they opened again, Vesper reached into his pocket and pulled forth a small metal tin. As he shook it, the contents rattled with a soft shake. "I brought some star candy. You eat it with your nose, it's fun but it makes your mind all funny. You can have some after we get this camp site all fixed up." He peered around, and waved his paw, lifting the tent into the air and bring it down before him slowly, each corner lining up with the pegs.

[Lux]

"I've never seen a talking cat." said Lux, though he began to flip through his notebook again. "Goat? Animal...Are you a...'rathor'?" Lux had a bit of trouble pronouncing the word himself, his accent alien and foreign to most anyone but his family. "You're tiny." Compared to the only other friend he had made in Daravin, it seemed he met the opposite ends of the height spectrum, himself smack in the middle. Moroi tended towards shortness, but they were still adult-human-sized. This talking, walking cat was smaller than that, more the size of a child. But he didn't act like a child, and he was wandering in the dark alone.

"I'm no goat. I'm Moroi. We like to catch the light. When I'm in Amoren proper, I have to keep covered." His tail flicked again, and he watched the tent right itself. There was a small tear from where it had caught against a little branch, though Lux first went right to securing it back to the ground. Secured by pegs once again, he returned the journal to its usual home in the pouch strapped around his leg and his waist and dug out a small sewing kit from his backpack. Needle and thread were strung together and he went to work repairing the hole, stitch by stich. It was a rather simple repair, but even the thread he used sparkled in the light. He had yet to buy more mundane-colored threads. Even his repair process was alien, as it seemed less about just mending and more about decorating the mend. He pinched the fabric together while he cross-stitched down the tear.

"Thank you for chasing off the spirit, then. Lucky I know how to fix this sort of thing." His tail moved while he talked, as if to enunciate his words while his hands were busy. "I've never heard of candy you eat through your nose, but I have learned that there are many things I've never heard of. So I'll try it."

[Vesper]

TIME STAMP

"The talking cat, the one and only!" boasted Vespasien with crossed arms and a haughty nose lift. Those yellow eyes opened again, meeting Lux's with that hypnotic trace of depth swirling behind them. "I am indeed a Rathor," he replied, "and I am 'fun sized' you see. I am perfect in every way… and nocturnal - I spend most of my time in the awake state beneath the night. It's relaxing." He winked.

Raising his brow, the cat let out an "oooaahh, Moroi," he repeated. "You should teach me how to catch light. I make machines and if somebody could catch light, maybe my machines could. Hum." He leaned over Lux's work, watching that sewing needle move with intensity. "Hey, you're pretty crafty too," he remarked.

Crossing his arms, Vesper tapped his foot. "I really like your constellation tattoo. I always wanted a tattoo, but my fur hides it… and I don't look very good shaved. If I paint it, then I just shed the fur, you know." Reaching out, he took the Moroi's tail between his paws, squeezing that pom of fluff on the end delicately beneath his paws. "You have a pretty cool tail, even if you've got so little fur. It's kind of cute," he smiled. "Oh, grabbing the tail is a greeting to all Rathor. I hope you don't mind."

Bad advice.

All the while invisible tendrils started trailing up the bones, winding round and round until it crawled, without feeling, up the Moroi's spine before lancing into the brain stem nice and firm. Vesper only converted a small amount of ether - really, he just wanted to peer into Lux's mural, wondering why this man was so strange and passive.

Shutting one eye, Vesper rocked side to side with a little swaying dance, humming to himself beneath the moonlight as he peered at the shifting collage of colors in his mind's eye. It was a grand facade, an approximation of what Lux's mind was like, with a series of colors to represent what he was feeling in the moment.

[Lux]

"Hm...I'm not really sure how it happens, just that most of us do." Lux shrugged. "Like a colored windowpane, or a crystal, but even more opaque." He finished up the stitching, the result being a line of x shapes that went down the tear and then some. "Thanks! I don't know what the constellation is, but it was what I was born under. On Tarkus, in the Outlands. Not my homeland, but the Krish's. Have you heard of it? I don't think most people have. And almost no one's heard of Kornos, but that was destroyed before I was even born." Lux droned on as he put his kit away, though he didn't twitch his tail out of the appreciative cat's grasp.

"Thank you! I couldn't imagine being covered in fur. Sometimes I forget to comb my hair. I can't imagine needing to comb the rest of me, too. All Rathor grab each other's tails? That seems a bit invasive..." He sat down, facing the cat with his tail wrapped around while he touched it. Lux reached over to grab the cat's tail too, in a mimic of the behavior. "Yours is soft!"

Lux's mural was akin to a mountain range made of stars and light and color, with himself at the peak of the tallest mountain, reaching for a central star. Everything was unerringly pleasant. He was happy, without any sign of irritation, even at the tent-mishap. He was not mistrustful, or scared, or even particularly worried, and each star that made up the mountain peaks and valleys grew brighter and more colorful as he continued to speak. He really just liked to talk, about himself and about his people, and moreso he loved to learn. Within the stars were circles within circles within circles, words and stories and feelings in a language if the cat could even identify it as such.

"Do you know many other Rathor? I haven't met any except you. Do you congregate anywhere, or are you spread out? You said you're out at night a lot — do you like the moon? Do you give it a special name?"

[Vesper]

TIME STAMP

"I can see right through you," said Vesper with a humorous whaff. "Window man." Faffing about with the tail, he batted it between his paws before letting it go, invisible lines stretching out to his fingers, always jostling with their movements. "It must be kinda funny having a tattoo you don't know much about."

Shaking his head, Vesper gave a shrug. "I have heard of Krish, and of the Outlands they hail from… Tarkus is a new word to me," he said. "Nhhmmmm, not -all-, but most of them!" Most, being Vesper. "Fur is quite the problem, honestly-y-y-yhh." The cat went rigid, his big and fluffy tail trembling from the nice touches. "That feels nice" he said, taking a seat in front with his behind up to Lux, surrendering his tail, which curled in the man's lap. "I like you… you don't have a bad thought in your head!"

That mural was absolutely gorgeous. Vesper couldn't stop shutting his eyes to peer at it, shifting his weight around with careless mirth. It was truly relaxing to be near someone so… pure. "I've met a few - they travel - and they're pretty nice. Every Rathor is different, though. You never know what you're gonna get, and some of them look like people. I'm what's called a 'Beastalt' and that means I can't transform like they can… the lucky ones!" Peering up at the moon, he put his shoulders together with a shrug. "I like the moon, but I never learned the language of my people so I couldn't say. I was born in Daravin, but most Rathor are from a place called Tyrclaid, and I've never been."

Popping open the can, he drew a butter knife from his pocket and dabbed the white powder onto that silvery reflective surface. Turning a bit, he held the knife up to his nose. Snnnnfffft! "Ah." He tapped the side of his head with his paw, his voice sounding a bit nasally as he dabbed some more onto the knife. "It stings, but that's normal." As he carefully passed the blade, he smiled serenly with a certain warmth, feeding raw, pure and ecstatic joy through the connection - as if Lux needed any more. He could already feel his own ecstasy spiking, and soon he was leaning back into Lux's arms, practically laying against him.

[Lux]

"Oh, that's too bad. I've always wanted to see Kornos, or even Tarkus. But it's a bit hard to travel through space." Lux released the soft cat's tail to take the knife, and he mimicked what he saw him do, snorting the substance. Combined with the magical influence of the cat, he was in a supremely good mood. His mural seemed brighter, and the highest star seemed ever closer to his mental grasp. Not that Lux had ever seen what sort of picture he painted inside his mind. To his solid-colored eyes, however, everything in the sky seemed brighter than before, even with the interference of fire. There were no pupils to dilate, though his tail curled around itself and onto his own leg.

"So some Rathor can look like people, and some look like you, are there ones who look entirely like animals? What do you do for a living, magical cat?" Even with the introduction of drugs to his system, the questions were ceaseless. He leaned back on one arm and used his free hand to scratch the cat behind his ears. "I just left my town a season ago, I think. A bit more. I make maps. I draw, too, and I can sew. My father is a tailor. My mother is an astronomer and a scientist, but nowadays she's too fearful of the stars. Not me, though.

"I know everything about a world I can never see. Sometimes it's frustrating," A handful of stars dimmed in his mural, and more circles appeared around them for only a second before they returned to their fantastical brightness. "I want to know this world as well as I know that one! So I left my home. I've learned since that most people would just as easily kill or enslave me. I don't think you will, cat, because we're friends now."

He stared up at the sky and the moon above. "I like this star candy. Where'd you get it?"

[Vesper]

TIME STAMP

Breathing deeply, Vesper enjoyed the bout of self-inflicted Backlash cascading through his mind. Star Candy made him feel powerful. Forceful. Aggressive. Even erotic beyond measure, and yet he cordoned off these feelings to the islands within his mind, staying on the same wavelength as Lux. Leaning with an elbow on the Moroi's thigh, he looked up and pressed his soft ear cups into the man's tunic, reaching to rub over a shoulder while his tail curled and twitched beside them.

"We can travel through space, together," said Vesper. "If we let go enough." The warmth of the campfire radiating through his fur left it with a trapped heat that made him feel all fuzzy inside. "The stars are really nice this time of night…"

Playing with the buttons and hemming on Lux's garb with his little paws, the cat spoke in spite of idle fascination. "A lot of Rathor can turn into animals, like I could be a cat on four legs instead of two if I were one of them. Neoalts, they're called. The shapeshifters." Humming a mellow tune, that soft chant lacked form, but it was soothing all the same, at least to himself. "Hm, hm, n-mmh. It's something I know all too well. I wouldn't dream of enslaving you, Lux."

Scooting more properly into the Moroi's lap, that emotion of joy only heightened through the connection, a steady stream of feeling transmitted by the Tether. He took the man's hands and placed them upon his body, cradling himself in the grip of someone who could not betray. It gratified Vesper's Purpose to no end. "The Star Candy?" He stroked the man's hand. "I took it from my dreams and filled that can with it. There are other things I can make with my mind . . . we should explore them. But first, why don't you relax and let it all take you . . . unwind." He shifted, placing his paws on Lux's shoulders. "… shut … your … eyes. Breathe . . . out . . . in . . . You are . . . floating . . . weightless . . . in the stars . . . they're bright . . . touch them..." The feelings of joy danced towards untold heights, and there was nothing magical about Vesper's words, but it was hard to reason otherwise at this point. "…you're smiling . . . petting your friend . . . the cat . . . he is a star . . . in the sky . . . with you..." Vesper smiled, his delightful paws massaging deeply into the crux of the Moroi's neck.

And then all at once, the Tether shifted from pure joy, cascading towards new heights of pure, unfettered, desire. It was enough to make the body thrum with the need for closeness, or whatever Lux thought he needed in that moment. To feel. To love and be loved. To want. ". . . You do want . . . the star . . . right?" spoke Vesper in that soft, deliberately slow hypnotic verse, his voice never rising above soft murmurs.

I should steal his horns.

But I won't. I've never met someone so special.

[Lux]

"So the neoalts can shapeshift? That's incredible! I've always wondered what it would be like to be a bird. But you can't. That's too bad." He pet the cat's head, down his neck and moved his hand back again. "You've got a fun form, anyway."

Perhaps it was the dream cocaine and the feelings heightened and induced by mentalism, or his generally gregarious nature, but Lux didn't mind the cat getting comfortable in his lap. He scritched him like he would any domestic cat, and he seemed to enjoy it like any domestic cat, excpet he could talk and walk and think and make magic like a person because he was a person. That a cat could also be a person was an exciting new thing to learn.

"You can make candy from your dreams? Is that another magic?" Lux grinned. "It feels like a dream." As the cat turned around and started to massage his shoulders, he kept scritching him. His tail swished back and forth along the ground, now uncurled. "Preettty kitty. You like being pet like a cat." He used his other arm to scratch behind both of Vesper's ears. Stix hopped and cawed at them, but Lux paid his crow no mind. He closed his eyes and felt his mood shift higher and unnaturally higher. Drugs and magic influenced him to such great effect, and he let the cat's words whisk him away.

"I've always wanted to be a star." Lux said, quieter than usual. He spoke less and less as he was overwhelmed with emotion. When the switch was flicked by Vesper, and the joy turned to desire, the Moroi held the cat in his arms and rocked from side to side, his face pressed into his fur.

"We can be stars," he whispered in Kornaan, rubbing his face into the soft fur, "The brightest stars in the sky."